Senate Bill 271 would make it a requirement for state agencies to publicly post the amount of federal funds they receive. The bill’s author Senator Nathan Dahm feels it would give the Legislature and the public a clearer picture of what federal money is coming to Oklahoma.
“Oklahoma government utilizes more than $26.8 billion annually, and just over $7.4 billion of that are federal funds,” said Dahm. “Our main responsibility in the legislature is to craft a balanced budget and that requires prioritizing the needs of our state agencies. That’s extremely difficult when we don’t know how much federal funding they’re receiving. In order to be as efficient as possible with taxpayer dollars, we have to have a clear and precise revenue picture for each agency.”
SB 271 also creates a method of how the agencies are to disclose federal funds, what it takes to obtain and retain the money and what conditions are required by the federal government for the funding.
The Senate sent the measure to the House on Wednesday by a vote of 31 to 13.
